The congress venue was the KRAM palace, which turned out to be a large complex of exhibition halls pretty unusable for meetings of the nature of the congress. Badly air conditioned in the hot 40 °C days, and laying all by itself in an industrial area to come. Organisation was substandard and pricing was high. Definitely not a good experience. But some 23 urban geography commission papers in series of sessions chaired by Yuji Murayama, Izack Schnell, Christian Matthiessen and others.

The General Assembly of the IGU constituted the next steering committee of the IGU as follows:

President Ronald F. Abler, USA

Vice President Dietrich Soyez, Germany

Vice President Löytönen was selected by the outgoing executive committee to fulfil the function

Adalberto Vallega would normally have assumed as the retiring president.

The general assembly also approved a series of proposed commissions and their chairmen including the proposition for: IGU Urban Commission: Emerging Urban Transformations. Chairman: Christian Matthiessen

I received many positive remarks on the hitherto work of our commission and also on our application.

The IGU 33. congress was decided to take place in Beijing 2016.

Christian Matthiessen

31th_IGU_Congress_08.pdf

Celine Rozenblat, Christian Matthiessen

3. September 2008

1. Monitoring Cities of Tomorrow. Last business meeting

Gerhard Braun (president 2000-2008) summed up the achievements of the commission. He made a report on 2004-2008 “Commission on Monitoring
Cities of Tomorrow”:

1- Membership and papers presented by continent

2- The meetings of the commission and year by year the evolution of Conference questions and highlights

3- Collaborations with other Commissions:

. Quantitative

. Demography

. Gender

. Cimate

. Ecology

. Economy

. Mega-Cities

4- Publications: proceedings of the Urban Commission of the IGU from 2000 to 2008

5- Archival Contributions: All proceedings should be available to the IGU archive in Rome. All members are asked to deliver their relevant scholarly work to this institution. Gerhard Braun thanked local organisers of meetings, members of the steering committee and especially the two officers of the commission, Izack Schnell (vice president) and Yuji Murayama (secretary) for their contributions to the success of the commission. The participants gave the leaders their acclamation and respect.

6- continuation: Gerhard Braun passed over the chair to Christian Matthiessen (elected president 2008-2012).

2. Task forces
Establishment of task forces with specific objects to deal with major urban problems is one important issue for the forthcoming steering committee. Four participants (Andre Horn, Petros Petsimeris, Celine Rozenblat and Wayne Davies) took responsibility for constitution of 4 task forces, which will be formulated during the next month, and which are going to take responsibility for sessions at the next commission meeting. The goal is publications.

3. Mentors Committee

Establishment of an advisory committee of long-term members. This committee should consist of 3-4 (to be discussed) of the commissions supporting and carrying members, who should have the task to develop the sustainability of the commission. Kind of an advisory board. The following commission members were proposed: Larry Bourne, Bob Sinclair, Jean-Bernard Racine, Denise Pumain and Gerhard Braun. The establishment of this committee is still open for discussion.

4. Younger Scholars Committee

Establishment of a committee with the task to encourage participation and ideas from younger members. The committee consist of 3 young scholars, Niam (chairman), Maria and one more (preferable from an Asian Country)

5. Next meetings

As of today the plans for commission venues are:

2008: Tunisia, August 4. – 10. and 12. – 15. at the 31. International Geographical Union Congress.

2009:
Hyderabad, India (draft of proposal was presented by Geetha Reddy Anant). The proposal was discussed in length. In conclusion it is necessary to elaborate on the thematic parts of the proposal. It must relate more precise to the commissions overall purpose, and especially be more nutritient on urban systems matters. Dates decided by vote (almost all votes in favour): primo august 2008 (to be published end September). 3 days excursion: Hyderabad-Bangalore-Chennai (also decided by a large majority of votes). We suggest that registration fee is kept at a low level for young scholars (Ph. d. students). We suggest that 3-4 hotels near the venue are selected, and that university guesthouses are in maximal use. Heath is going to be a problem, so it is necessary that meeting rooms, accommodation and transport means are air-conditioned.

2010:
Tel Aviv, august in connection with the IGU-regional conference. The commission will ask Izcack Schnell to organise a commission meeting within the regional conference.

2011: Open (IGU regional conference in Santiago). The commission discussed the possibility of having meetings in South America. On the one hand we want to activate this part of the world and on the other hand we are not going to plan meetings without a local organiser we know and who has an active record at the commission. Canterbury was proposed and augmented for by Dan Donahough. And we have a preliminary proposition for a meeting in Poland.

2012: Cologne: 32. IGU
Congress. Lienhard Loetscher has proposed a preconference meeting in the Rhein-Ruhr area, which he will arrange. To be discussed.

2013: IGU regional conference in Kyoto. Possible venue. To be discussed.

2014: IGU regional conference in Krakow. Possible venue. To be discussed.

6. Other issues

Yuji Murayama presented the plan for the in-congress meeting 12. – 15. August at the 31. IGU congress in Tunisia. Very few regular participants join this activity, but it is an extraordinary possibility for recruiting new members. It was decided that at forthcoming meetings there shall be two business meetings. One in the beginning of the meeting, mostly on state of affairs and the other in the end of the meeting focusing on decisions.